Fun With Dick & Jane

Today’s show was fun – we started with Dick’s correct prediction that Paul Kirk would be named interim MA senator (after Deval Patrick manipulated the rules to allow the appointment). This was minutes after Kirk declared he supported the “public option” and hours before it was voted down. C’est la vie.

We want on to Health care and the Congress’ gag order on Humana to force them to stop telling their policy holders what would be the changes under Obama care. We went on to the democrats unwillingness to allow the public (or Congress) to read the bill for 72 hours before the vote.

Next up GITMO and the very discouraging news that President Obama refuses press access to the camps. This is a huge and troubling change from the Bush administration. The key question is: why?

We talked about ACORN, Patrick Gaspard, ties to the SEIU, and the press. Dick gloated that 2 weeks after the whole thing unraveled he found a story on ACORN in the NY Times owned Worcester Telegram. Page 1 you ask? Of course not.

We moved on to Iran, Wall Streets $7.7m in donations to democrats this year (the bulk to Chuck Schumer) the Olympics, Roman Polanski and finally Sarah Palin’s new book.

Enjoy!

Today we started with state politics, particularly Dick’s prediction that Paul Kirk would be named interim successor to Senator Kennedy. I noted that everyone else was predicting Michael Dukakis to the seat. If I’m reading my tweets correctly, as of 2:30 on 9-24-09, Dick had it right.

Next week tackled ACORN with the emphasis on the President’s attempt to disassociate himself with a group he has been associated with for 20 years. We talked about how all of the MA delegation voted to NOT defund ACORN after the recent scandals, except for John Tierney and Barney Frank, who abstained.

Finally we talked about my very favorite part of the scandal which is how it has shown the media to be shilling for the President, as most of the mainstream media declined to mention the scandal until the vote took place.

The fact that the vote took place at all tells me that regardless of the attempts to downplay the Tea Party last week, Congress heard us.

We went on to the latest scandal where the White House coordinated with the National Endowment for the Arts in what certainly looks like an attempt to get the arts community to push the president’s agenda in exchange for grant money. Dick had not heard of the scandal once again highlighting the negligence of the media.

In the discussion the media, special mention was given to Andrew Breitbart’s new website, Big Government, which is leading the charge on exposing both the administration and the media.

There was a lot in between but we ended talking how the administration is back pedaling on what it always called “the good war”, and how reports from Iran are very encouraging.

There is more but you will have to listen.

We started the program hopefully, with news that President Clinton was in N. Korea to facilitate the release of the two women hostages. Questions still remain about what we promised Kim Jon Il in return, but it’s a great day for those two women.

WE moved on to health care and the Town Hall meetings that have been attended by critics of the President’s plan. Dick had the talking points down – which surprised me – and suggested that the opposition was orchestrated. I told him to take a look at the signs. SEIU and MOVE ON tend do use machine made signs. Individuals not organized tend to make their own signs. I reiterated my latest attempt to contact my congressperson, Richard Neal. Attempt #6 was greeted with an answering machine. I assume he is at the beach.

At some point Dick gave me the now mandatory “I know politics and you don’t speech” and then we were able to move on.

We talked about the blue dog democrats – of which Dick says he is one.

I told the story of Sudanese journalist Lubna Hussein who is on trial for wearing pants in public. I have been particularly impressed by the solidarity other Sudenese women have shown by showing up at the trial, wearing pants.

We talked a bit about the rumor that Greg Craig, White house counsel would be fired as the scapegoat for the president’s foreign policy to date.

There was more, but you will have to listen.

The first segment today was all about Sarah Palin. We talked about her resignation, what we think it means and what will be next for Governor Palin. I believe she represents those of us fed up with Washington, “Government As Usual” and the “Politics of Personal Destruction” – aka the tea party-ers. I reiterated Ross Douthat’s thesis:

Palin’s popularity has as much to do with class as it does with ideology. In this sense, she really is the perfect foil for Barack Obama. Our president represents the meritocratic ideal — that anyone, from any background, can grow up to attend Columbia and Harvard Law School and become a great American success story. But Sarah Palin represents the democratic ideal — that anyone can grow up to be a great success story without graduating from Columbia and Harvard.

We then talked about State Treasurer Tim Cahill who has switched parties (democrat to independent) to run for Governor against Deval Patrick.

We also talked about things happening in Iran, Honduras and Russia, and the President’s rather disconnected handling of each situation.

There is more – take a listen!

Today’s show was one of my favorites.  We spent a lot of time talking about Iran.   We talked about Ahmadinejad and Moussavi but mostly about the brave people in the streets.    We talked about the President’s stunning lack of response, and the regime itself.  It’s my position that democracy in Iraq is spilling over (as planned) and we should be encouraging the dissidents.

(I was also on Wednesday morning talking about Iran again with Peter and a guest, professorJeffrey Addicott.  He also talked about how this Iranian crisis is such a wasted opportunity for the administration.)

We talked about the firing of the Inspector General Walpin and the dearth of news coverage of this abuse of power scandal.

Mid show we learned that the MA legislature had passed pension reform.  The MA pension system is ridiculous.  For example if you are a MA employee and work 1 day a year, you recieve pension credit for an entire year.    The Governor announced some changes which represent a very small start on the problem.

Dick and I talked about Walpingate – the scandal involving Inspector General of Americorps Gerald Walpin who was wrongfully terminated by the White House after he exposed serious irregularities by Kevin Johnson, an Obama friend and supporter.

We spent some time on the Uighers, now basking in the sun in Bermuda on our dime, and those going to Palau at the cost of about  $12,000,000.00 (that’s  12 million ) per Uigher.

I also reminded everyone of the Worcester Tea Party, this Saturday at Elm Park in Worcester from 12 – 3.  If you are local, I hope to see you there.

Enjoy!